Launch HN: Feather (YC S17), painless furniture rental for people who move a lot

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jun 29, 2017, 7:58 PM UTC

austenallred wrote: post #69

justboxing wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't know about this. Landing page says > Good Credit Not Required. > Instant decision. Wow.

What's wrong with granting loans to people who have bad credit? What are they supposed to do if there's a shortfall or a car breaks down, pawn a wedding ring? I used to work for LendUp. They're the most caring and altruistic people I've ever met. I mean that literally. LendUp uses machine learning & data science to decision people with more granularity than a credit score, and can therefore approve much deeper than b…

Post by jandrese » Thu, Jun 29, 2017, 7:59 PM UTC

gmisra wrote: post #67

What do you think about the fact that, in general, the percentage of Americans who move is on the decline? > In the mid-1960s, about 20 percent of the population moved in any given year, according to the United States Census Bureau. By 1990, it was approaching 15 percent. Today it’s closer to 10 percent. The percentage that moves between states has fallen by nearly half since the early 1990s. https://www.nytimes.com/…

Post by jayreno » Thu, Jun 29, 2017, 8:02 PM UTC

noxryan wrote: post #51

jayreno wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the thoughts! Curious to hear what type of furniture you would be purchasing that would break even to our furniture at 3 months? The breakeven price for our customers is always longer than the total price of the rental. Wonder if we should be explicitly stating this on our site?

What about this bed in Queen Size? (First piece I priced out) https://rentfeather.com/collections/bedroom/products/dunham-... https://www.wayfair.com/Zipcode%E2%84%A2-Design-Colby-Uphols... Feather 3 month rental price: $207 Wayfair purchase price (including shipping): $201

Post by jayreno » Thu, Jun 29, 2017, 8:06 PM UTC

jonahx wrote: post #13

Just glancing at the home page, I see two sofas for over $100 /mo. At that price, even if you're someplace for only a year, it makes more sense to buy. Especially if you don't mind the effort of reselling, which could be minimal -- even at firesale prices you'd still come out way ahead vs rental fees that high.

Post by gmisra » Thu, Jun 29, 2017, 8:07 PM UTC

jayreno wrote: post #70

gmisra wrote: post #67

What do you think about the fact that, in general, the percentage of Americans who move is on the decline? > In the mid-1960s, about 20 percent of the population moved in any given year, according to the United States Census Bureau. By 1990, it was approaching 15 percent. Today it’s closer to 10 percent. The percentage that moves between states has fallen by nearly half since the early 1990s. https://www.nytimes.com/…

Great point here. It's a bit counter intuitive, right, that Americans on the whole are moving less. To add some color: -The majority of Americans that live in rural or somewhat suburban areas are most certainly (though anecdotally) bringing this number down. In cities, you'd expect this number to be much higher than 10%. -This data point from article below is bit more telling of our target market. Please don't mind t…